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The Naked Man
Recap Ted ponders how long it will take to recover from being left at the altar by Stella, asking for advice from Lily, Marshall, Robin and, Barney. He soon finds out himself as he begins to talk to a woman he always sees at the elevators at work, Vicky. Slowly they get to know one another, until Ted blurts out that he got left at the altar. He rebounds into asking her out to a date, which she accepts. He comes home later that day, passing by Robin talking on the phone outside. When he enters his apartment, he finds Mitch, Robin's blind date, sitting naked on the couch. After an awkward exchange, Ted leaves and tells Mitch to take the seat cushion he's on with him, as it's trash now. After hearing from Lily that the blind date had been going badly, Ted goes back and confronts Mitch again, who tells Ted about his "move", The Naked Man, where one takes advantage of a distraction in order to get naked in front of their date in hopes of sex, by means of confidence or by pity. Ted tells the gang about the move's effectiveness (2 out of 3 times), and they proceed to rebuff the claim, thinking Robin may end up shooting Mitch instead. Taking the notion seriously, they storm back to Ted's apartment to find a makeshift "Do not disturb" sign hanging from the doorknob. Convinced that The Naked Man indeed works, Barney believes it will revolutionize the one night stand, comparing it to the forward pass or the slam dunk, much to the chagrin of Lily, who still believes Barney has feelings for Robin. Barney then likens himself to Batman, with his secret identities and "gadgets", and Mitch to Superman, citing that he "just rips off his clothes, and he's good to go." Ted's still amazed that The Naked Man worked on Robin. She tries to explain herself when Marshall calls her a slut, saying that the only reason to sleep with someone is true love, namely because he was recently strong armed into reading The Notebook by the secretary's book club at work. Everyone disagrees, and Lily claims she can name at least 50 reasons to sleep with someone while everyone but Marshall helps (some of the reasons mentioned are expiring condoms, "paratrooping" slang term for sleeping with someone in a foreign locale in order to have a place to stay, and breakup sex). Stuck on 46, Lily resolves to finish her list as Barney tries to convince Ted into doing The Naked Man with Vicky on their upcoming date while he goes out to attempt The Naked Man himself. As Barney's getting ready, he calls Ted to let him know that he's going through with it. To his surprise, Ted is too after he realized that there was no future between him and Vicky, mainly because she is incredibly rude to a waiter. On their second date, Robin's tries to start up small talk with Mitch, who realizes that they're on a "I'm not a slut" date, and tells Robin that she's out of his league. After debating which pose to display themselves in, Ted finds a copy of some of his favorite poetry in Vicky's apartment and decides to put his clothes back on. When he finds out that the book isn't even hers, he busts out The Naked Man, as does Barney on his date, and Lily on Marshall. Ted tells Lily and Marshall at the bar of his success with The Naked Man, and they tell him that it worked out for them as well. Robin, still trying to defend herself, brings Mitch with her to the bar. Marshall takes back what he said, to Robin's relief, and she lets Mitch leave. Ted thanks Mitch for the move, saying that it worked for everyone. Marshall decides to call Barney to see how it worked for him. As it turns out, Barney fails and was forced to leave her apartment naked. Even leaving his cell phone. Which was then thrown in the toilet after the call was ended. (The "Naked Man" having worked 2 out of 3 times; Ted and Lily succeeded while Barney failed) Ted proposes a toast to his hero Mitch, The Naked Man. Meanwhile. Barney is roaming the streets naked trying to get home. Embarrassed and having to hide from other people. He comes across some cheap suits on a rack outside but was not interested in any of them. So he continues to roam naked. Continuity *Barney previously tried a similar technique in ''Zip, Zip, Zip''; when invited back to Robin's place, he immediately stripped down thinking she wanted sex. *In the episode ''Rabbit or Duck'', Don tries the Naked Man technique on Robin *When Marshall's "three biggest mistakes of his life" are shown, the second mistake is attempting to jump across two buildings, the origin of which is shown in the future episode The Leap. Gallery TheNakedMan1.png|Ted and Vicky flirt in the elevator. TheNakedMan2.png|Vicky agrees to have dinner with Ted. TheNakedMan3.png|Ted walks in on a naked Mitch, Robin's date. TheNakedMan4.png|Mitch explains the Naked Man. TheNakedMan5.png|Barney is shocked the Naked Man worked on Robin. TheNakedMan6.png|Lily tries to list 50 reasons to have sex. TheNakedMan7.png|Barney tells Ted to try the Naked Man with Vicky. TheNakedMan8.png|Lily continues working on her list, upsetting Marshall. TheNakedMan9.png|Ted and Vicky have dinner. TheNakedMan10.png|Barney goes home with Cristina. TheNakedMan11.png|Ted and Vicky's date starts to crumble. TheNakedMan12.png|Barney calls Ted to say he's about to Naked Man. TheNakedMan13.png|Ted tells Barney he's also going to Naked Man. TheNakedMan14.png|Robin goes out with Mitch again, to prove she's not a slut. TheNakedMan15.png|Ted presents the Naked Man to Vicky. TheNakedMan16.png|Vicky eyes a naked Ted. TheNakedMan17.png|Barney performs the Naked Man to Cristina. TheNakedMan18.png|Lily presents the Naked Man to Marshall. TheNakedMan19.png|Ted succeeds; Vicky starts to undress. TheNakedMan20.png|Lily succeeds; Marshall moves beside Lily. TheNakedMan21.png|Barney fails; Cristina yells at him to get out. TheNakedMan22.png|Ted thanks Mitch for teaching him the Naked Man. TheNakedMan23.png|The gang toast to Mitch. TheNakedMan24.png|Ted's voiceover compares Mitch to a superhero. Memorable Quotes Ted: He may not fit society's definition of a hero, but he is the hero I needed, the hero who helped me recover from the disaster of my failed almost-marriage and get back into the game. He lives in the shadows. Is he a dream? Truth? Fiction? Damnation? Salvation? He is all these things and none of them. He is... the Naked Man. ---- Ted: I just had decent sex with an awful human being. I am back! ---- Barney: All these years, I have been busting my hump with my secret identities and my tricks and my gadgets. I mean, I'm like Batman. But this Mitch fellow? He's Superman. He just rips off his clothes and he's good to go. ---- Barney: All these years I've been suiting-up when I should've been suiting-down. ---- Vicky: And then his cane missed the top step and I swear he was falling for, like, two minutes. Oh, I love old people. Notes and Trivia Goofs and Errors *As Ted recalls strange occurrences at his apartment, one of them is a goat in his living room on May 8, 2009. The goat was first seen in Ted's bathroom on his 30th birthday as mentioned in Ted's voice-over narration in the first season episode Milk. During ''The Goat'', Future Ted stated that the goat in his bathroom was actually on his 31st birthday, which would be April 25, 2009. *When Lily is about to write down the "50 reasons to have sex," she takes her pen out of her purse, takes off the cap, then grabs her cocktail napkin. But two camera shots later, she is again taking off the pen cap. *When Barney's date yells at him and throws him out, as she turns back towards the camera her lips are visibly not moving, even though her voice can be heard. *When Ted is explaining the weird things he has walked in on at the apartment, a scene is shown from dated from 2004 in which he walks in on Lily painting several gymnasts posing. If this had taken place in 2004 Lily would have still had red hair. Allusions and Outside References *The idea of 'The Naked Man' is actually first described in Doogie Howser, M.D.'s "Spell It...M-A-N!". The description parallels what Ted does with Vickie, but in Doogie Howser, the guy isn't as fortunate as Ted. *The ending of the episode is similar to that of Christopher Nolan's 2008 film, The Dark Knight, where Commissioner Gordon provides a narration of how Batman is the hero Gotham deserves, but doesn't need. *When Ted is standing around naked in Vicky's apartment, he opens a book of love poems by Pablo Neruda and discovers it is bookmarked to his favorite poem, which appropriately is Desnuda Eres ("Naked, You Are.."). *Some of the poses they used referred to the Captain Morgan rum logo, Superman, the Heisman Trophy, Mr. Clean, the Coppertone Girl pose, Rodin's The Thinker, and actor Burt Reynolds. *The Naked man describes his technique as a mixture of surprise and pity or "shock and awww", a play on the military technique of rapid dominance known as Shock and awe. *Barney describes The Naked Man as being like a superhero, the Superman to Barney's Batman, contrasting the Barney complicated approach, gadgets, gimmicks, secret identities and suiting up, to the simple very opposite idea of taking it all off. *When Ted admits he is wearing tinted sunscreen because he wants his eyes to pop, it is a reference to makeup artist Carmindy from the television series What Not to Wear. Music *"Gorgeous Behaviour" - Marching Band Other Notes *Overall, this is the seventy-third episode. *At the end when Mitch is walking down the street, he has two shadows: one projected on the pavement and another projected onto the wall behind him. *According to DVD commentary, "The Naked Man" is a real concept that one of the writers performed "ten to twelve times" when he was younger. *The German episode title is "Nackter Mann", an exact translation. The French episode title is "Ciel, un homme nu", meaning "Oh My God, a Naked Man!". *International Airdate: Australia: June 10, 2009 on Channel 7; Germany: January 02, 2010 on ProSieben; United Kingdom: February 4, 2010 on E4. Guests *Candace Moon - Cristina *Courtney Ford - Vicky *Adam Paul - Mitch Reception Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club graded the episode "A-".http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-naked-man,13391/ Cindy McLennan of Television Without Pity rated the episode with a grade "A-".http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/how_i_met_your_mother/the_naked_man_1.php Michelle Zoromski of IGN gave the episode 8.5 out of 10.http://tv.ign.com/articles/933/933740p1.html References External links *[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1256191/ The Naked Man] at the Internet Movie Database *[http://www.tv.com/show/how-i-met-your-mother/the-naked-man/episode/1238278/summary.html The Naked Man] at TV.com Category:Episodes Category:Season 4